You may not have noticed it, but Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) First View went gently into that good night at the end of July 2010. The First View file has integrated into the main DWPI file as the integration dates occured for each outstanding record. Read on to find out what DWPI First View was and why it mattered.
DWPI First View was launched in 2004 by Thomson Reuters to provide early access to published patent documents with preliminary bibliographic information. One might think of it as the scout out in the field judging the approaching legion of patent documents. For DWPI users, this was a way to set up the earliest possible alerts or generally stay ahead of the curve while doing competitive research. According to the June 2010 Dialog Chronolog, DWPI First View was retired due to the increasing efficiencies of the standard DWPI file:

DWPI First View was launched in 2004 to provide faster access to data from new patents not yet available in the main DWPI database. In recent years, however, significant improvements have been made to the timeliness of DWPI. On average, records are now being loaded within 15 days of publication date. While the DWPI timeliness improvements greatly benefit users, they also impact the content and size of DWPI First View. The amount of time patent records are stored in DWPI First View has been considerably reduced, as well as the overall size of DWPI First View in terms of the number of patents in the file at any particular time. These factors have diminished the value of DWPI First View for customers.

To memorialize DWPI First View, here is what now amounts to an obituary, from the previously available Dialog Bluesheet via Intellogist:

———-
File 331 – Derwent World Patents Index First View

This information is sourced from the Dialog Bluesheet for File 331.

Derwent World Patents Index First ViewSM is a companion database to Derwent World Patents Index®, Files 351 and 352, and also to Derwent World Patents Index Extension, File 350. It has been designed to be searched in conjunction with DWPISM to give a complete view of all the published patent documents before their inclusion in DWPI.

DWPI First View content is created by:

Identification of all patent documents added to the DWPI production system that have not yet been released into DWPI

Extraction of bibliographic information for these work-in-progress patent documents immediately after the DWPI patent family equivalency search

Addition of author text data such as title, abstract, and main claim for some patent-issuing authorities

Addition of technical drawing images where available

Release of these work-in-progress records as DWPI First View updates

DWPI First View is a rolling file. New patent records remain in DWPI First View until all of the value-add has been created by Derwent editors. The completed record is then added to DWPI and the corresponding DWPI First View record is removed.

DWPI First View is a patents-based database, whereas DWPI is family based. Each patent record in DWPI First View is identified as a Basic or Equivalent patent. Most of the records in DWPI First View are new Basic patents, as the majority of Equivalent patents are added immediately to DWPI, without having been in DWPI First View. DWPI First View contains records for those Equivalent patents that cannot be added to DWPI until the corresponding Basic patent record has been added to DWPI. There may also be a small number of Equivalent patents in DWPI First View for which the Basic is already in DWPI because of the timing of the extraction process for each file. These equivalents are likely to be transferred to DWPI in the next update. Equivalent patent records in DWPI First View list the corresponding Basic patent number.
———-